Speed Trap
by ozma914
Summary: Castle's road trip from Atlanta to New York gets sidetracked when Deputy Rick Grimes takes a bite out of crime. Luckily, Castle has an unlikely fan. Written to celebrate the release of my new humor book, "Slightly Off the Mark".


Richard Castle was not unfamiliar with the sight of flashing red and blue lights in his rear view mirror. However, having it happen in rural Georgie gave him pause.

His daughter, who had been half-dozing in the passenger seat, poked her head up. "I told you to rent a plain sedan."

"But a Porsche is—"

"A police magnet." Straightening, Alexis adjusted her safety belt.

Castle pulled onto the berm and lowered the window, then recoiled from a blast of hot air. "Oh, he's going to be grouchy from the heat."

"How fast were you going?"

In the rearview mirror, Castle watched a sheriff's deputy step out of his car. "Um …"

"Maybe _that's_ why he's going to be grouchy."

The deputy stepped forward, one hand on the grip of an amazingly large revolver. "License and registration, please."

"Ah, yes, um, it's a rental …" Alexis handed him the paperwork, which Castle in turn handed over to the officer. Being in the middle of Deep South nowhere was a bit intimidating by itself, but Castle's thoughts kept going to what a great character this guy would be for his next book. Surely Nikki Heat could venture into, say, northern Alabama on a case.

In addition to what appeared to be a .357 Magnum, which couldn't possibly be department issued, the guy wore an honest to goodness cowboy hat with a star on the front. How cool was that?

"Do you know how fast you were going, Mr. Castle?"

That brought him right back down to earth. "I, um … yes, I do, um, Deputy Grimes. I'm sorry."

Grimes flipped his eyes up to Castle. "I'll be back." Taking the paperwork, Grimes headed toward the patrol car.

Castle looked toward Alexis, and only then realized another deputy had stealthed his way to the passenger side of the car. "Say, maybe you should roll your window down, too."

She glanced toward the window. "Why, _eek_!"

The other deputy had the good grace to look embarrassed when the window came down. "Sorry about that, ma'am, I didn't mean to startle you."

She gave him a onceover, and went from startled to swooning. "Oh, that's all right."

Daddy-daughter cross-country drives weren't what they used to be. The guy was handsome in his own way, with a baseball cap instead of a cowboy hat, a bit more bulk than Grimes, and dark, curly hair. To Castle's relief, the deputy's attention didn't stay on Alexis long. To something less than Castle's relief, he instead bent down and gave Castle a hard stare.

"Hey. Are you … Richard Castle?"

 _Oh, boy._ "Well, there are probably lots of—"

"Richard Castle, the writer?"

"Heh. Yes, I am." _Oh, please let this be …_

The deputy grinned, just as his partner returned to the driver's side. "I love your Nikki Heat books!"

 _Oh, thank God._

Grimes lost his cop stance and straightened, looking over the top of the Porsche. Turning a little red, the other deputy also straightened.

"Shane? You read?"

"Come on, man, how long have we known each other? Ya know I like a good cop thriller."

"Cop thriller?" As a unit, both bent down again. "Oh." Grimes nodded. "Castle, got it. I didn't much like it when you killed off Storm."

"Heh."

"Yeah, but we got Nikki Heat," Shane said, leaning into the window. Alexis swooned a bit more. "So, that detective, the one ya based Nikki on. Is she really-?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Wow. You're one lucky guy."

Grimes cleared his throat. "That's right, because I'm letting you off with a warning, Mr. Castle … if you can tell me why you were going twenty miles over the speed limit."

"Twenty—was it twenty?" Grimes nodded. "Well, the truth is, we got into a nasty incident as we were getting ready to leave Atlanta, and it kind of made us anxious to head on home. I mean, we wanted the road trip—"

Alexis broke in. "Some crazy guy tried to _bite_ him!"

The officers looked at each other.

"He missed." Castle thought he should stress that, so they didn't haul him in for rabies shots, or something. The laws in King County were most likely different from the ones in New York.

"Did you report this?" Grimes sounded like he'd run Castle in if he hadn't.

"Didn't have to. Some Federal guys showed up just in time and hauled the guy in, said they were taking him for tests. I thought at first he was just a fan …"

The officers looked at each other again. "Do fans do that?" Shane asked.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "You'd be surprised. It's where the term 'rabid fan' came from."

"Yeah, I guess so." Grimes looked at Shane. "I guess living in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"Not if people are always biting each other."

Finally, Grimes handed the license and registration back. "Mr. Castle, I'm sure you had a difficult day … but I'd appreciate it if you'd slow down and be careful." He gestured toward Alexis. "Your daughter, right? I have a son. Wouldn't want to see him get lost in a car accident."

"No … no, thank you, officer." He watched Grimes walk back toward the patrol car. The guy knew how to slow a dad down, for sure.

Then the window was filled again, by another brown and tan clad body. "Um, Mr. Castle?" Shane glanced around, then held out a ticket book. "If ya don't mind …"

"I'd be happy to." It was, indeed, the first time Castle had ever been happy about signing a ticket.

"Thanks. Looking forward to your next book." Tipping his hat to Alexis, Shane headed back to the car.

They'd traveled on for half an hour—at the speed limit—before Alexis spoke again. "No offense to the NYPD, but Georgia cops are hot."

"Please."

Still, it might make for a great new plotline. Nikki Heat, trying to solve a murder while navigating a love triangle with Jameson Rook and a hunky, down home Deep South lawman? With a cowboy hat, and a big .357 strapped to his side … Ooh. It could make a great spin-off series.

Who knows what kind of challenges might spring up for a Georgie deputy? The Porsche's speed began to pick up, as Castle's anxiousness to start work on the new idea increased.

But he didn't get pulled over again until Kentucky.


End file.
